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As previously discussed by this blog, The Greater Western Library Alliance and publisher Springer have partnered to create the Occam’s Reader project. The pilot program will begin in March and allows the corsortium of 33 academic libraries to share e-books via interlibrary loan.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has published an article outlining how the project will run. The software allows the lending library to upload the e-book onto a web server. The patron requesting the e-book at another library recieves an email with a username, pasword and link to a log-in page. The user can then sign in and read the requested book. Borrowed e-books can be read but not copied, printed out or downloaded and are automatically deleted from the server at the end of the designated interlibrary loan period.

The Occam’s Reader Project (a collaboration between Texas Tech University, the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) ) and publisher Springer have entered into an agreement to run a one year pilot program allowing e-book interlibrary loans (ILLS). Although ILLS have always been possible under the terms of Springer e-book licenses, there was no process for doing so. The new software creates a process for requesting, processing and delivering e-books.

This is the first major collaboration of its kind between academic libraries and a major publisher and has the potential to revolutionize how e-books are shared by libraries.

BBC Business News broad ranging story Paperless public libraries switch to digitalstarts with a report on Bexar County (Texas) Library’s bookless Bibliotech and follows it up with a discussion of the move to ebooks in libraries, the issues libraries face with publishers, and finally a discussion of library closures in the UK. The Bibliotech contines to attract attention with a story in the LA Times Paperless Public Library to Open in Texas

Libraries are places that cultivate a love of reading. The people who borrow books from libraries are more likely to later buy books on their own. The same principle should apply to e-books, particularly if people borrow e-books from libraries to become more comfortable with the new format before making purchasing decisions

and calls for libraries and publishers to work together :

I am optimistic publishers and libraries will be able to make the necessary adjustments, just as they have in response to other challenges they have faced together through the years. However, to make the transition as smooth as possible, the time to start planning for those adjustments is now.

draws us into the topsy-turvy world of the written word, illuminating the turbulent, exciting journey from the book through the digital revolution. Writers, publishers, readers all in flux. Booksellers closing shop. Librarians and teachers seeking new roles. (IMDB summary)

Pointing a finger at the parents and teachers who have the power to affect the habits of the next generation, Roumani warns not of a dystopian future without books, but of one without readers. And although it’s never dwelled upon for more than a few moments, it is “Out of Print’s” most profound proclamation. (Jeva Lange, NY Daily News Books Blog “Page Views”)